


Keyframe

by orphan_account



Series: Maple Close [1]
Category: Buzzfeed Unsolved (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Growing Up Together, High School, M/M, Mutual Pining, Nostalgia, they're the same age in this AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-08
Updated: 2018-03-08
Packaged: 2019-03-28 15:06:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,238
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13906593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: keyframe: n. a moment that seemed innocuous at the time but ended up marking a diversion into a strange new era of your life. or, Ryan meets Shane on a September afternoon when they're seven and never leaves his side.





	Keyframe

**Author's Note:**

> this is a prompt fill for "even when we were kids, I always kicked your ass!" and I meant for this to only be a drabble but clearly that backfired. I now have a [Tumblr](http://summonedwheezes.tumblr.com/) where you can send me more prompts!

Ryan’s memories of his childhood weren’t always the most precise, but there was one day he could recall precisely. It was a warm September day, when summer still lingers on before school starts, sweltering heat all gone and traded in for the warm melancholia of the last days of summer break.

He remembers the details as if they’re frame by frame. Frame one, him sitting down on his porch step with his basketball waiting for his dad to drive him to practice. Frame two, a truck pulling up to 21 Maple Close, the house across theirs that’s been empty forever, and a warm-looking man getting out.

At seven years old, time isn’t exactly something you have a concept of, and Ryan, in that moment, thinks this is the longest day of his life, waiting on the step. He watches as a boy gets out of the offensively yellow truck; he’s got a book in hand and his limbs look longer than his. The family doesn’t seem to notice him there, unlocking doors and taking the first boxes in, and this is the first time Ryan realises he likes watching small moments of life unfold around him. He’ll learn, later, that this is called slice of life, but for now, his dad’s getting out and saying _let’s go, kid_.

His parents insist on going over the next day to welcome the new neighbours, and he finds out, sat in their backyard over lemonade, that the boy’s name is Shane, and that they moved to California from Illinois. They’re the same age; both families look delighted.

__________________

When school starts again, Ryan feels emboldened. He’s the tour guide, showing Shane around school and introducing him to his friends at lunch, and Shane likes listening to all the weird facts he remembers about the building. They’re lab partners in science class, walk home together, and Ryan wonders now if they were aware this would be the rest of their lives then.

Years pass in a blur of video game nights and popcorn, and suddenly they’re sixteen, sitting in Shane’s backyard like they did the day they first met almost a decade ago. Shane asks, “You know Matt from the football team?”

“Yeah, dude.”

“We made out yesterday.”

Ryan looks over at Shane for a moment before he raises his right hand. They high five, and it feels like a promise.

__________________

Junior prom rolls around a few months later and it’s lame when you don’t have a date, Shane decides. From his bedroom window, he can see Ryan getting into a car with a girl wearing a pink gown, and Ryan’s mom waving on the front step. The burning pit in his stomach is definitely because he’s missing out on being out late.

Ryan finds that he loves prom— loves the pictures, wearing a tux, the cheesy playlist and the bad kisses he gives his date by the end of it — but when he comes home at night and sees Shane’s light still on, he’s tempted to ditch his date and go hang out with him. He doesn’t really think about whether or not that’s normal.

 In senior year, Ryan convinces Shane to come with him, as friends. Neither of them has had the time to find a date; he’s been busy doing extra credit work in his film AP class and Shane’s been burying himself in history books. Shane sighs and says _fine, fine, we’ll go_.

 Both their families insist on taking prom pictures, even though they both protest that it isn’t a date; they’re eighteen and Shane wraps an arm around Ryan’s shoulder and makes funny faces on the photos. Shane’s dad drives them and in the backseat, Ryan realises this part of his life is almost over. College will swallow them both up in only a couple months’ time and he’s not sure he’s ready to leave Shane and Maple Close behind.

 They dance like idiots, and for a while, Ryan forgets about all that. Shane’s limbs are stupid long and his dance moves are all goofy underneath the disco lights. It’s good, but then the DJ says something about preparing for college and Ryan feels like he can’t breathe.

It’s subtle, the way he’s collapsing, but Shane notices and he grabs his hand to lead him outside, where the party is just bass and drum in the distance. They walk for a little bit and sit on the empty football field, both their tuxes undone.

“You okay?” Shane asks him softly. Ryan registers that his right hand is still in Shane’s left when he rubs circles onto his palm.

 “Yeah,” he breathes, “I think so.”

 __________________

 

In mid-July, when he’s already drowning in boxes because he can’t help but be organised and eager, Ryan looks over at Shane sitting in his bedroom. He’s wearing a shirt Ryan got for him as a joke, and it says Willow Creek, USA, home of Bigfoot.

“So do you want to go to this party or not? One last hurrah?”

Ryan sighs. “Sure, one last hurrah,” he repeats as he puts the basketball he used as a kid in a box labelled Attic. Shane notices, and something twists in his gut; he didn’t realise it was possible to feel nostalgia while you’re still in the good old days.

 Ryan finds himself just short of drunk and past buzzed in the kitchen that night, talking to people from high school that he’s certain he’ll never see again so it doesn’t matter if he talks absolute shit. Shane comes in, and his face lights up.

“Shaaaaaaaane,” he says with a glint in his eyes, “this was the best idea ever!”

Shane smiles and grabs another beer from the fridge. “To me being a genius with good ideas,” he toasts as he clinks their bottles together.

Ryan feels warm.

__________________ 

They walk home in the night because it’s only one block away and they need some air to sober up, and when they arrive home Ryan just invites himself in — his room is a disaster right now anyway, and his parents will know where he is — and walks up the stairs to Shane’s cosy bedroom.

He doesn’t really know how it happens. He thinks maybe it’s the way he closed the door and looked back up with an intense look, or maybe how they danced really close together at the party, but either way, he finds himself pressed against Shane’s bedroom door, their lips pressed together, and he can’t help but think about how Shane has his arms on either side of his head, crowding him in.  
  
It’s only a few moments before they both get desperate, tumbling down on Shane’s double bed, and when he sits on top of him, Shane tries to lift him up by the underside of his thighs.

“I want to look down at you for once,” Ryan says, breaking apart for air.

“I guess that’s the only way you’ll ever be able to,” Shane laughs, and he’s running his hands everywhere now. “plus you’re all buff and everything now, you could probably kick my ass.”

“Even when we were kids, I already kicked your ass.”

Shane chuckles at that, his hands now at the back of Ryan’s neck, and he brings him closer for a bruising kiss. Neither of them knows what the future will bring, but that night everything feels like they’re in control, and that’s enough.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! was this any good? did it make sense? let me know!


End file.
